I'm refreshing myself on storytelling mechanisms.  One of the themes I'm looking at is the Hero's Journey.  As a professional offering services to other businesses, your market is more narrowly defined as a people who are business leaders or members of a department or group with a specific objective to accomplish. 

The hero's journey starts with the a conflict or uncertainty (competing stakeholder needs?  How to get all the MBOs (objectives) completed with the few resources on hand?)  As an organization offering them a solution for their needs (including making other stakeholders happy), you can deliver the story of their journey through your communications - your sharable articles, your guides and studies, or thought leadership tips and how-tos. 

Here are a few things about crafting the framework of your story:

• Create a positive context for a lasting impression.  Focusing on the negative or problems could leave a bad taste for anything coming from you.
• Give the hero-in-waiting a feeling of empowerment by showing them how they are cued up to succeed.
• Provide the understanding of the story through knowing the world the hero is in.  Invite them into your world with the appeal of the solution that's in their hands.

By following these concepts, you'll give them a context to relate to, so they will want to take the hero's journey with you. 

This post was inspired by this article on storytelling tips for fundraising.

I recently was watching, for the first time, Mad Men, which is a show with stories about a 1960's ad agency and the characters who work there.  The central character, Don Draper, is fascinating.  His money account is in Big Tobacco (and there's is a lot of literal and figurative smoke in these stories!).  In the show's pilot episode,  the government started releasing reports about cigarette smoking being bad for your health, and Don was pressured to come up with the right slogan in this new market ecology for his client.  Despite his best tries at talking to customers, brainstorming with co-workers, hearing the research, and drinking for inspiration, he couldn't find the right words.  When the clients decided to walk out on their meeting, Don finally came up with the slogan "It's Toasted;" everyone thought he was brilliant and he saved the day.  He later said, "Fear stimulates my imagination."

If some of you operate like Don, and fear stimulates you, I'm presenting you with a list of what could happen when you don't provide your target audience with content that connects.  In no particular order, if you don't concentrate your content toward what your target is wanting, these are some possible scenarios.

• A visitor may find you while searching Google, but after 8 seconds looking at your website, they don't know what you do or how you're different from the others.
• A prospect might receive a flyer from you at an event. They are wanting to solve problems they have with collaborating with other departments, but your flyer only lists your main features.  The screen shots on the flyer don't explain the problem and you don't have an 1-second way to get more information, like through a QR code or a Facebook link.  The prospect throws the flyer in the trash.
• Your website home page lists everything you do.  But it doesn't list what the visitor does, or is wanting to do or achieve.  They will likely get bored within seconds of reading.
• You write an article or white paper that highlights new features of a product or service.  The features will not be memorable, and your prospect will not add your company to the short list of those in consideration.
• Your social media posts sell, sell, sell your products and services.  Readers don't want to be sold to, right?  They want to be entertained, amused, captivated?  In order to stay away from those things that readers want, you must consistently post facts about your company and products.
• Your PowerPoint pitch goes into your company's history, characteristics that are similar to anyone's in the industry ("we have great customer service") and facts about your operation MORE than it addresses the story, plot, and characters of your prospects.  This can help create a mindset in your prospects that you really don't have what it takes to solve their problems.

This isn't an exhaustive list, certainly, but if I missed anything really important, email me.

Today's post is a Venn diagram, showing how your professional/business ecology combines to create your story.